Mitsubishi Electric
'Smart Carriages' for linear transport systems
Mitsubishi Electric and its partner APT Automation have developed a transport system that uses 'smart' trolleys to intelligently control the flow of goods within a single machine or an entire production plant.
According to Mitsubishi Electric Managing Director Hartmut Pütz, a unique selling point of the intelligent transport trolleys is their own power supply - they are equipped with both 240 volts alternating current and 24 volts direct current. This allows components such as actuators and sensors to be integrated into the trolley. The data collected by the sensors is also stored directly in the 'smart carriages'.
The integrated intelligence and data storage enables the trolley to recognize products and their destination, which increases the flexibility of production. The ability to switch between parallel production lanes also allows the 'Smart Carriage' to route individual products to different stations on parallel production lines. Different processes can thus run simultaneously and be brought together again at a later point on the tracks.
The production lines are able to reconfigure themselves during the production process - based on the requirements of the respective product and the available capacity at the various stations.
Another advantage of the linear transfer system is the small distance allowed between the trolleys on a single track. A minimum distance of less than 1 mm increases the number of trolleys that can be accommodated in a lane. The maximum speed of the system is 3 m/s, the acceleration/deceleration is specified by the manufacturer as 3 G and the positioning and repetition accuracy is ±0.01 mm. In addition, collision avoidance technology prevents collisions, even when a large number of carriages are moving along the tracks at high speed.
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